Six months later.... 

 

 

"I am so excited to spend the day with you!" my aunt Stacy practically squealed. 

"I am too." I smiled, "It's been too long!"

I put my backpack of supplies into the trunk of my aunt Stacy's sedan, and my aunt's boyfriend, Dale, put the food I picked out of my freezer into a cooler in the backseat. The three of us were meeting up with most of the rest of my family in a rented cabin near Fairplay, and while Stacy and Dale were heading back home the next day, I had the option to stay at the cabin with everyone else till that Wednesday. But, before I made a decision whether to leave at the ass-crack of dawn the next day, or stay till Wednesday, I wanted to scope the place out. 

"So, you're twenty-one now..." my aunt began as we veered onto 285 from Morrison road, "Have you had your first beer yet?"

"No, I honestly haven't." I answered, "I did have my first taste of wine on my birthday with my grandpa Lyle and grandma Connie..."

"And?" my aunt urged. 

"I didn't like the Red Wine too much. Too smooth and sweet for me. But, I liked the two shots of Sake I had."

"I'm not all that surprised." my aunt smiled, "Your dad doesn't like sweet drinks either. Neither did your grandpa Bob. It means you'll probably like Busch Light."

"Is that so?"

"Yup. You're not a true Nibbe till you start drinking Busch Light."

"Alright. I'll give it a shot tonight." I nodded. 

"There ya go!" my aunt laughed. 

We took the backroads to Fairplay, avoiding the traffic on the main roads, and we were rewarded with scenery that took Stacy and Dale's breaths away. Personally, I was too excited about spending time with my family to notice the snow-capped mountains, swollen clear rivers and streams, the pine boughs waving in the wind, or the massive storm front ahead of us. 

"Looks like it's gonna rain!" my aunt announced as we approached a curtain of white. 

"That's no rain. That's snow!" I corrected her. 

"Nuh-uh. Not here in May." she contested. 

"Nope. We're 9,000 feet above sea-level, and it's really cold outside. That is, in fact, snow. Hope you dressed warm." I grinned knowing both my aunt and Dale were in T-shirts and shorts. 

"Oh, Jesus..." Stacy trailed off. 

"Shoulda taken the Xterra." I continued with an ornery grin.  

"We shoulda." Dale agreed. 

Still, we continued, driving the shitbox sedan right into the wall of ice and snow. The road turned from cracked asphalt to rocky gravel, as entire trees began to bow in the wind, and heavy, wet snow clouded our view of the world. Stacy, not used to the mountains I've grown to love and know so well, began to freak out. 

"Oh. My. God..." she uttered between sharp breaths, "What have we gotten ourselves into? It's a blizzard. It's literally a blizzard!"

"No, it's not!" I laughed, "It's just a squall. It'll be over in five minutes. Jeez, you sound just like grandma Shirley! You need a Xanax."

"A squall, you say?" Dale asked as he slowed the car down to a crawl. 

"Yup. It'll be over in no time. In fact, it's already starting to taper off a bit." I said. 

Of course, I was right. Just as we turned onto the driveway leading up to our cabin, the squall had moved on. Only a light flurry wisped through the grass and aspens with a slowing breeze. Above us, the swirling silver and white clouds were beginning to break, revealing slivers of clear blue sky for sunrays to burn through. But, just to our west, another squall was on its way, cresting over the snowcapped peaks just as I turned to look. 

But, before I could stand on the porch and watch the landscape, I figured I ought to help bring things in. Especially because both Dale and Stacy were looking a little breathless. 

"Here, I got it!" I offered as my aunt took off for the porch stairs with her suitcase. 

"No, I have it! I have it." she assured me between pants. 

"You sure?" 

By then, she'd already begun to head up the rickety porch stairs, so I just shrugged and decided to carry in as much as I could in one trip. Which, of course, included a 24 pack of Busch Light, as well as a box of PBR, and a box of hard seltzer. For most people, that would be more than enough alcohol for the night. But, for my family? Yeah, that would only last a couple hours, if that. 

As I clambered up the porch steps, I bumped shoulders with Stacy, who seemed astonished by all the stuff I was carrying all at once. But, strangely (for her), she didn't stop me and ask to help. She sounded awfully winded. And from the quick glance I shared with her, she also seemed alarmingly pale. 

Quickly, I made it the rest of the way up the porch steps, charged around the corner, dropped everything off in front of the door for Dale to pick up and put away. Then, I high-tailed it back downstairs, where my aunt was, seated in the car holding her chest. 

"You... You good?" I asked, concerned. 

After a few breaths, Stacy answered, "I.... I don't.... know... I'm havin' a hard time.... breathin'..."

"First and foremost, stay seated." I commanded, then I turned to Dale and shouted, "Bring down some water! She's a fish outta water!"

"There's bottles in the trunk. A whole bunch of them!" I heard Dale call back from the porch above me. 

"Got it!" I replied as I jogged to the trunk and ripped a water bottle out of its plastic wrapping. 

"Chug this. You need it." I told my aunt Stacy, who was still seated in the car, hyperventilating, and whiter than the snow on the ground. 

She nodded and took a hearty swig after each breath. While she did this, I went to fetch more water bottles. Another for her, and one for myself. Gradually, her breathing slowed down and became less panicked. Color returned to her face. And the glassy look in her eyes began to fade. 

"Better?" I gently asked. 

"Yes. Much better." Stacy nodded, sighing with relief, "What was that?"

"What was what?" I asked. 

"That horrible feeling? It felt like I was dying. Like... my chest was being compressed. It hurt to breathe!"

"I think you didn't listen to me and gave yourself Hypoxia for a bit there." I snarked. 

Stacy smiled and pinched the bridge of her nose. She was going to be just fine. 

"C'mon!" I motioned, "Let's get ya up to the living room. Another squall's coming and I don't want you to be in this smelly-ass car forever."

Stacy nodded, grabbing my outstretched hand, and I pulled her to her feet. Again, I made sure she could walk okay, and I followed close behind her up the stairs until she collapsed onto the living room couch. 

Once everyone was settled and all of our stuff was in, I went off to explore my surroundings a bit, familiarizing myself with the cabin and surrounding wilderness. Of course, I didn't go all that far, especially because I didn't want to get caught up in the approaching snow squall. I wasn't exactly dressed for that kind of weather. I'd left my foxhide headdress at home.

Our cabin wasn't totally isolated from society. The nearest neighbors were about two-hundred yards away from our cabin, hidden by a forest of aspens behind our cabin. Our cabin was built in a barren, rocky field of prairie grass. Most of the trees grew in forests across the valley from us. Besides me, not a soul was in sight. It was just me and the sound of an increasing wind hissing through the stubble. No birds, no dogs, no wolves, deer, or bears. Nothing. No one. It was like I was the only living creature on earth, standing on the porch of our little cabin, watching over the land. 

As the next squall approached, I leaned up comfortably against the porch railings, a Diet Coke in one hand, and the other hand in my hoodie pocket. I listened as the wind picked up from a barely-noticeable breeze, till it was howling through the trees. Thankfully for me, the wind was coming in from the north, so I was completely sheltered from it on the porch in front of the south-facing cabin.

The sky darkened once again, and within just a few minutes of the first great gust coming through, it was nearly a complete white-out. I could barely make out the nearest tree, and the driveway seemed to disappear into nothingness. Still, I stood comfortably sheltered on the porch. So long as I was out of the wind, it wasn't terribly cold. But, just as I let my guard down, the wind suddenly shifted, blasting me with cold and ice. 

"Aw fuck!" I growled as I bounded back into the house and slammed the front door behind me. 

"That's what ya get for givin' me a hard time!" Stacy laughed. 

"Yeah, well..." I chuckled, "God's clearly got a sense of humor. That was horribly cold!"

But, as fast as the snow came though, it was gone. And, as the sheets of ice and snow moved on, it revealed another two cars on the rocky road nearby the cabin. Those cars belonged to the rest of the crew. 

"Look what the wind blew in!" Dale shouted as he opened the glass front door to let in my cousin Troy and his wife, Quinn. 

"Yeah, right?" Troy laughed, "It's fuckin' cold. Didn't expect this."

"Neither did I!" Stacy admitted, "I thought Maya was bullshitting when she told us that it would be snowy and cold."

"Again, shoulda listened to me!" I grinned, "I'm always right."

"At least it's warm inside." Quinn said. 

"I guess all o'r hikin' plans have gone out the window!" my cousin, Wade Jr, declared as he stepped into the cabin, his girlfriend close behind him. 

"No shit." Troy smiled, "I guess we're just gonna spend our time up here gettin' drunk and playin' Hammer-Schlagen."

"Works for me." Junior shrugged, "Dad brought the log. It's a little soft, but hey, it's somethin'."

Outside, braving the weather in his hoodie, shorts, and flip-flops, was my uncle Wade placing a fairly large log on top of a cooler. He then buried the claw of a large, well-worn hammer into the top of the log. On an adjacent metal table, he put a brand new box of nails. 

Of course, it wouldn't be a family get-together without more alcohol. My cousins brought several large coolers' worth in Busch Light into the cabin, along with two huge bottles of Jack Daniels' Tennessee Whiskey, a couple bottles of red wine, a bottle of Peppermint Gin, and several other alcoholic beverages I didn't care to notice. 

Soon, uncle Wes and aunt Jess came up with their suitcases. My younger cousins, Kael and Jake weren't far behind. I, of course, was the recipient of many hugs and "so-glad-ta-see-ya's". But, before anyone even had begun to completely settle, Jess pulled out a fully-charged Bluetooth speaker. A minute later, familiar bluegrass began to echo throughout the little cabin.

Everyone, except for me, was worn out and winded. Still, I sat down on the downstairs couch with a few others and just relaxed. I haven't felt so safe since Minnesota in December. It was so cozy in that pinewood cabin, especially with Earl Scruggs' instrumentals, my family's light conversation, and the lonesome sound of the wind reverberating through the air. Outside, through the wall of windows making up the south-facing side of the cabin, it was once again blizzarding. The nearby pines and the aspens bent with the wind, and snow drifted across the deck with the gusts. The driveway to the cabin seemed to lead to nowhere, as it quickly faded into silver-blue nothingness. Visibility was reduced to just a few yards or so. 

Occasionally, the ambience would be interrupted by the sound of a drink can being popped open, or someone loudly letting loose an exaggerated belch. Or, a playful bickering among those who were playing Euchre at the dining table, under the soft yellow glow of a small chandelier. My aunt Jess brought out a couple logs of cheddar jalapeno venison sausage (the same stuff I'd raided from my great uncle Courtney's freezer a few months before), chopped it into slices, and placed the plate in the center of the dining table. The room filled with the subtle scent of venison, mixed in with the scent of pinewood and Busch Light. Before long, the venison was gone (and, of course, Troy and Junior nearly got into a playful fistfight over the last slice of venison sausage). 

Once again, we were civil, but so far from civilized. And, that's exactly how I like it.